ScottV Stamps

I came across about a half pound of Malaysia off paper recently, and sorted them by definitive series like always, with a pile for states issues and a pile for commemoratives.  I had fun filling up stock pages with rows of these issues, and did a quick check of catalog values to see if it was worth doing.  That's when I found that the fruit series splits into two major sets: the first set has the denominations in C and $, where the second set has values in sen and RM.  The first set catalogs from minimum up to about $1, but the second set of sen/RM list for $6 each with a few unpriced, even in the 2024 catalog. I have no idea why these are unpriced.  They are essentially the same as the other values, showing up in mixes in the same quantities.  There is nothing that makes them more uncommon or harder to appraise.  I was actually expecting the prices to go down between the 2021 and 2024 catalogs, as always happens for issues from 5-10 years ago. On the inter...

I have seen a few of the 2002 Brazil self-adhesive fruits in mixtures before, but never thought much about them.  They're brightly colored and cute, but the designs don't stand out well.  After seeing a few hundred of them in a hoard I acquired recently, I can now describe the three main perf types of the series. The initial set is described as a serpentine die cut.  These are mostly under $1 each but a few go higher.   The second series is die cut with no perfs and rounded corners, and although I see far fewer of these than the first group, they have minimal catalog value. The third series looks like it's die cut with sharp square corners at first, but it is actually microperforated.  These are much less common and list from $6 to $20 each. This is a tricky set to collect since the stamps are self-adhesive and often have paper stuck to the backside or sticky spots left over from a hasty attempt at soaking them.  I would collect them on paper.   Here a...